Russian concert fans stay connected with ADTRAN Cloud Wi-Fi®

One of Russia’s largest annual music festivals, Alfa Future People took place in Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia, July 17-18. Alfa Future People is a yearly gathering of some the world’s best music, technology, and recreational events, such as football, laser tag, and others. Technologies such as 3D printers, virtual reality simulations, and the newest in green vehicles, the Tesla, were all on display during the event.

The three day long festival has been growing every year and the number of visitors continues to increase. This year, an estimated 40,000 fans attended the Alfa event. With so many there to enjoy the festivities, having a network capable of handling the thousands of devices with seamless mobile connectivity was absolutely essential.

Our partner NSTel was responsible for deploying ADTRAN Bluesocket vWLAN throughout the festival. Wi-Fi was deployed across more than 150,000 square meters in an open air space. NSTel carried out all the work for Wi-Fi deployment – from network design to construction and installation, as well as equipment adjustments and providing experts on-site during the festival to troubleshoot any issues. Round-the-clock monitoring of the network quality was also critical to the success of the project to make sure that festival goers continued to have high quality Wi-Fi connectivity.

ADTRAN Bluesocket vWLAN proved up to the task in handling the event’s high traffic load and complex radio environment. The Wi-Fi services provided exactly what was needed for the festival, with the following highlights:

5 terabytes of information transmitted during the festival

At peak, 4,000 visitors were simultaneously on the network

A grand total of 15,000 users connected to the network at some point

During the performances, outgoing traffic far exceeded incoming, with fans sharing photos, videos and other social media updates from the concert, allowing them to freely share their experience while at the festival.